Lund was honored at the 2017 AFN Convention. Della Keats “Healing Hands” award is named for the late Dr. Della Keats, an Inupiaq healer who served the health care needs as a tribal healer in Northwest Alaska for over 50 years. The award recognizes an Alaska Native who has demonstrated strong commitment, competence and sensitivity as a tribal healer or health care provider whose accomplishments have most directly affected Native people in their home communities.

Lund served as a director from 1988 -2009 and was instrumental in allowing descendants to enroll as shareholders. In February 2017, Lund along with Marlene Johnson were named Director Emeriti. She is best known for helping found the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) in 1985. She now is SEARHC president emeritus. In February 2008, SEARHC’s Juneau Medical Center was renamed the SEARHC Ethel Lund Medical Center in honor of her dedication and accomplishments with its organization. Lund has received many honors and recognitions including Woman of the Year by the Juneau Chapter of the Business and Professional Women in 1984, and she was the first Alaska native to receive the honor. In 2011, she received the Shirley Demientieff Award from then Alaska Governor Sean Parnell at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. In 2010, she was named to Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame for Health, Native Issues, and in 1978 President Carter appointed Lund to the President’s Commission on Mental Health where she spoke on “Alaska Health Needs” for the World Health Organization, at the International Symposium on Circumpolar Health in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ethel Lund is Tlingit, Raven, Kiks.ádi clan, and belongs to the Sun house. Her Tlingit name is Aanwoogex’ Shtoo.aak.